Make it your aim to live a quiet life, mind your own business and work with your hands... 1 Thess. 4:11

Friday, February 05, 2016

So You Wanna Lead Worship?

There he is, on all fours, cloth in hand, spray cleaner by
his side. His face is not visible. He’s unaware of the camera. His friend
confides, “Part of his process every week—in preparing for leading us in
worship—is hand-scrubbing the sanctuary floor underneath each seat.”

* * * *

Her talented young adult daughter is settling into a new
church in her new university town, far from home. She calls to relay the
latest: “The music leader listened to me audition, then said they need someone
to vacuum the children’s classrooms every Sunday morning before church as part
of the worship team training.” She accepts the role eagerly and is then placed on a worship team.

* * * *

Watch him shift back and forth from the leg with the
titanium knee to the other one he’s having replaced next year before he retires
from his blue-collar job. See how he stretches his twice-broken back every hour
or so? Wipes the sweat off his face regularly during the 12 hours a day he
leans over that hot camp stove, chopping board or steaming dishwater in the
camp kitchen? Watch him give a full week of his “vacation” every year to do
this so 130 campers can hear about Jesus.

* * * *

She’s often late to choir rehearsals, English isn’t her first language, she struggles to find and keep the proper pitch. But she prays with fire and enters in
to the time of music with abandon, shouting at the end of the songs like she’s
in the bleachers at a game and the home team just scored.

* * * *

He's a prolific songwriter, preparing to record an album of worship songs. He doesn't stand on a platform, in the spotlights, doesn't sell tickets to the theatre seating. He seats his band in the congregation. On the floor, everyone together, sings and worships the Audience of One.

* * * *

They shuffle in for drama auditions, fill out a slip with name and contact
info. Then there’s that question: “Would you accept a smaller role in order to
allow more people to participate?”

She swallows hard. “If I say no”, she muses, “I might not
get any role. But I really want that one role. It would be my heart’s desire to
play that role.” She is offered a smaller role and she wrestles hard, then
accepts it as a gift. “God works in all things for the good of those who love
him.”

* * * *

They’re arguing like brothers, the whole lot of them. They
jostle and joke, poke fun at each other’s foibles as they walk down the dusty
path. How much further is it?!As
always, on a road trip, debates rise about who’s strongest, fastest, best at
healing the sick, greatest in faith.

After they were settled at the end of the journey, Jesus
turns and asks, “What were you arguing about?”

Awkward silence. Nothing but crickets.

Then he looks each one of his closest comrades in the eyes as he speaks. Not a one
can hold his gaze before dropping their head as they hear: “Anyone who wants to
be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:33-35)

* * * *

Earlier in the week before the disciples argued, Jesus
taught the entire crowd, including these rowdy disciples, some of the
principles of the kingdom:

“Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.
You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it.
Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is
the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get
everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your
soul for?”(Mark 8:34-37)

In Matthew 20:20-28 we see the mother of James and John
asking they be given a special place in the coming kingdom. They didn’t know
the cost – his coming suffering and death. They were seeking a costless glory
and causing dissension among the other disciples.

Jesus replies that only his Father would grant that request
and outlines the cost of greatness: “…whoever wants to become great among you must
be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.”

Still wanna lead worship?

It’s not about leading.

It’s about following.

It’s not about personal advancement,

it’s about personal sacrifice.

It’s not about the crowds,

spotlights, footlights or limelight.

It’s about suffering and service.

It’s not about getting the role you want,

it’s about worshipping with your entire self

the only One who is worthy.

Still wanna lead worship?

Hear my voice when I
call, Lord;

be merciful to me and
answer me.

My heart says of you,
“Seek his face!”

Your face, Lord, I will
seek. (Psalm 27:7-8)

There is a danger for those of us in the organized church to pursue "spiritual success", driven by the pride of life and a natural desire for the applause of people. I must lose myself in God for himself alone. Nothing else. No one else. Only then will his work be accomplished for his glory and not mine. I cannot judge my own humility. I must keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. When I am most humble, most sincerely worshiping, most unselfishly serving,I will not be aware of it, for my eyes will be focused on him. It is out of a love relationship that humility, worship and service spring. For God and God alone.

Soli Deo Gloria.

*image of "SDG" at the end of a G.F. Handel manuscript. Public domain. Source: Wikipedia.